Conflicting reports released on Kentucky teacher pay

FRANKFORT, Ky. (FOX 56) — Two competing reports are painting different pictures of Kentucky’s teacher pay.

Last week, the National Education Association (NEA) released its annual rankings and estimates, which dropped Kentucky from 41st to 42nd in average pay at $58,325 and from 45th to 48th in average starting pay at $40,161. A report released by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions argues that significant fringe benefits make Kentucky teacher compensation far more competitive.

“I’m all for properly funding our teachers, but I’m making the case that we are doing that,” Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters said.

“You’re a single teacher, it’s very difficult to live anywhere in this state and make ends meet,” Fayette County Education Association president Jessica Hiler said.

The most recent state budget did increase SEEK money, an algorithm that determines per student funding, but Hiler said those raises need to be made directly.

“When you have SEEK dollars that are increased to the district level, that’s an impossible decision for the districts to make when they have to be providing resources and services to kids. We want that to be first and foremost. Absolutely. But we also have to pay our teachers, and that’s a very difficult decision for these districts to have to make on their own,” Hiler said.

“Ironically, the only area that was down was salaries. And those aren’t controlled by legislators. Those are controlled at the local level,” Waters said.

Waters argued that about $35 thousand in fringe benefits like retirement and insurance should also be considered when talking about teacher compensation, and doesn’t think the rankings between states are an ‘apples to apples’ comparison when cost of living is factored in. Both organizations argued that some data in the other’s report was misleading.

“I think what you would see is that when you figure in cost of living, when you figure in the benefits the teachers are receiving, which they didn’t talk about in that report, when you figure those in Kentucky is actually going to be much closer to the top in the nation, in how we treat our teachers,” Waters said.

“Everyone is seeing an increase in living expenses right now. So for us to drop in ranking and for everybody to have a difficult time buying groceries and do everything we’re doing right now. I don’t see how you can say it’s not apples to apples,” Hiler said.

Waters says he’d support an incentivized approach to teacher pay that is boosted by student performance. Hiler argued that test scores are just a snapshot of a student’s day and doesn’t fairly determine a teacher’s pay.

The National Education Association report can be found on the NEA website. The Bluegrass Institute’s report can be found here.